This is our Mood board and we believe it sums up what our theme of the music video is going to be about, it's about that transition of a good night out to the aftermath in attempting to recover from a serious hangover!
Here is the official video to Kanye West featuring Rihanna & Kid Cudi - All Of The Lights (directed by Hype Williams). I believe this video is a exceptional example of a music video, it has complete focus on the artist, which is a main convention of a music video, which is to sell and promote the artist. Also, the camera constant moves, with a range of close ups to long distance shots, varying from a range of angles; this keeps the viewer engaged in watching the video, along with the quick colour swatches and switches, with the mise-en-scene, the police vehicle flashing, it amplifies the feel of the music, on the basis of the soundtrack, it is a RnB/Hip-Hop track, which usually has the artist tending to show off their wealth and status, we can clearly see that with the Rockstar jacket, the gold chain and the shades show this aspect. In addition, Laura Mulvey's ideas on representation, are shown with Rihanna, wearing not much clothing, showing off her body, she is for the male gaze, however, she is facing the camera, which demonstrates that she is not a passive figure.
In our summer lessons we had to create a music video it was exciting completely different to the thriller film project. I've learned that using the camera to make shots from different angles but we found learning the lyrics and the lip sync was most difficult.
Editing also seemed to be different as we were taught how to line up each video to the original sound by listening for certain beat and selecting the exact time and do this for each clip. We then had to cut the clip using a "Razor" and delete one clip to match the rhythm of the beat. I think our group had the best video considering it was our first attempt.
My long run at AS i developed a lot of skills using computers and camera. My group used software like Live type which allowed us to customize texts which was included in our thriller. It was a great and made our films look professional.
Soundtrack pro was used to edit our films by not using our original sound but by making our sound alone and inputting it into our films. Soundtrack was also used to insert music, soundtrack, background tension music.
Also, the possible most important was Final cut pro it was the center of creation it was the reason we had finished and clean cuts, allowed transition like swipe and fade which connects with the thriller genre. most important it allowed me to delete unwanted scenes cut them out and cause jump cuts creating great tension. I believed that all famous directors used these applications as they were professional allowing any amateur to deliver a good film.
During my AS year I used such programs as Live type, which allowed me and my group to customize the font type we would use on your film, which is really plays into our advantage as it lets us choose a font which is practical for the thriller theme we had to aim for last year.
I also used Final cut pro during the course of my AS year, in Final cut pro, I learnt how to delete certain unwanted clips which would reduce the tension levels and alter others to compliment and emphasise the thriller genre we where trying to implement in our film. learnt many techniques such as inserting transitions between two clips for a smooth transition, this could have been done by a fade or a swipe which ever was practical to not loose the tension during the transition of clips in a thriller film.
Another thing I have learnt during the course of my AS year is that, the technique implemented whilst filming is vital, a shot type can vary between making the person in the scene look powerful or weak, so using birds eye to give this sense of weakness to the character, and this was a great technique to increase the levels of tensions one of the best examples I could find for this is, the film Psycho. During this learning curve on how to use a camera effectively we were asked and taught how to use manual focus to it's full potential as auto focus could blur some clips and possibly when viewed on a large screen could loose much of its quality. Also by removing sound we allowed a build up of tension because we removed the background sound from the original clips and replaced them with an intrumental or sounds which would amplify tension in a thriller movie.
During the AS year one of the most important aspects of filmmaking is the technique to create a good opening scene, which is gives the audience a certain expectation of what the film will be about, for example if the opening scenes of Donnie Darko is really slow, the music is very magistic and slow, there is a sense tension already building up, and with this birds eye angel camera shot tracking the car on the side of the mountain, already gives a certain expectation of the film. Taking of Phelam 123 is another film which has a great example of an opening scene, there is upbeat music by Jay Z, there is fast paced editing and the titles on the screen are transitioned in very fast and almost trying to immatate the movement of a train, this tells the audience this is an action film.
